:00:00. > :00:12.Marine Le Pen wants to be president of France. Everyone on the right is
:00:13. > :00:16.behind her. Because she's our last chance to save the country. After
:00:17. > :00:27.Brexit, after Trump, she wants to be the next shock to the establishment.
:00:28. > :00:32.Marine presents herself as the new face of a patriotic mainstream, but
:00:33. > :00:45.the toxic legacy of her father still looms large. We reveal controversial
:00:46. > :00:51.money men working behind-the-scenes. We are talking about very radical
:00:52. > :00:56.ideas. Such as? Anti-Semitism. It's clear. From moss toe to Trump Tower,
:00:57. > :01:03.we speak to fixers looking for loans. Some of the people they were
:01:04. > :01:07.there, they could have contributed $1 million without blinking an eye.
:01:08. > :01:08.And we ask - what is the true extent of her relationship with the
:01:09. > :01:35.Kremlin? This is a secret. Our story begins in Lyon,
:01:36. > :01:44.traditionally a bastion of the far right in France. Marine Le Pen is
:01:45. > :01:51.launching her bid to become president of the republic. What
:01:52. > :01:55.would you like her to change first of all in France, if she becomes
:01:56. > :02:03.president? To change? The first thing to change, immigration.
:02:04. > :02:10.Riding a global wave of anti-establishment feeling, Le Pen's
:02:11. > :02:19.popularity has surged. She could top the poll in the first round of the
:02:20. > :02:28.election later this month. We're at home, this is our country, that's
:02:29. > :02:35.what they're singing. Marine Le Pen wants to ditch the euro, perhaps
:02:36. > :02:42.take France out of the EU. She's anti-Nato, Andy globalisation. But
:02:43. > :02:43.the subjects she's most vocal on are immigration, radical Islam and what
:02:44. > :03:15.it means to be French. Le Pen aspires to lead a patriotic
:03:16. > :03:20.movement for the modern age. But her party, the Front National, has a
:03:21. > :03:28.troubling past, with historic links to Nazi collaborators and violent
:03:29. > :03:36.far-right movements. Meet the party's founder, Marine's
:03:37. > :03:40.father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. He's a former foreign Legionnaire, a
:03:41. > :03:44.veteran of France's colonial wars, who's been fined for racism and
:03:45. > :04:07.Holocaust denial. Since Marine took over from her
:04:08. > :04:18.father in 2011, she's tried to ditch the party's violent, racist image.
:04:19. > :04:21.In her campaign videos, she's focussed on issues of social
:04:22. > :04:37.welfare. In French, they call this makeover
:04:38. > :04:42.de-diablolisation, casting out the devil. She's dropped the name Le Pen
:04:43. > :04:48.from her campaign. These days she is, simply, Marine. Two years ago,
:04:49. > :04:56.she even expelled her own father from the party. A trouble maker and
:04:57. > :04:59.provocateur who built a political dynasty that became synonymous with
:05:00. > :05:28.racism and anti-Semitism. Marine Le Pen has put in place this
:05:29. > :05:41.process that she called de-diablolisation, what do you make
:05:42. > :05:46.of that? This is the tension in the Front National, between the old
:05:47. > :05:53.radicals and the modernisers. To win the election, Marine Le Pen knows
:05:54. > :05:57.she needs to broaden her appeal. In the town of Frejus, on the south
:05:58. > :06:00.coast, Front National activist, Sonia Lauvard and her group of
:06:01. > :06:11.supporters are helping her do just that. Every Sunday morning, they
:06:12. > :06:37.walk the local market speaking to shoppers.
:06:38. > :06:45.Their efforts to detoxify the brand seem to be working. Marine Le Pen's
:06:46. > :06:58.party now controls 14 town councils nationwide.
:06:59. > :07:03.In Frejus, the local mayor is also Marine Le Pen's presidential
:07:04. > :07:19.campaign manager. The things that people fear about
:07:20. > :07:34.you is that you're anti-Semitic, Islamophobic.
:07:35. > :07:42.But Le Pen's efforts to detoxify the party haven't persuaded the French
:07:43. > :07:45.establishment. And that's left the Front National desperately short of
:07:46. > :07:49.money. The Front National needs around 20
:07:50. > :08:00.million euros to fund its campaigns this year alone. But because of its
:08:01. > :08:03.racist and anti-Semitic past, French banks won't lend it money. So Marine
:08:04. > :08:06.Le Pen's financing options are limited.
:08:07. > :08:10.She's already had to go crawling back to her father, whose toxic
:08:11. > :08:15.reputation she'd rather people forgot about. Recently, he arranged
:08:16. > :08:37.a six million euro loan for the party.
:08:38. > :08:42.Some of the other characters Marine Le Pen has turned to for money
:08:43. > :08:50.wouldn't look out of place in a spy thriller. Frederic Chatillon, rabble
:08:51. > :08:57.rouser turned slick businessman, whose client list has included
:08:58. > :09:01.Bashar al-Assad and Brigitte Bardot. We spotted him at Marine Le Pen's
:09:02. > :09:08.campaign launch. What's he doing talking to senior party figures? It
:09:09. > :09:13.turns out, he and Marine are old friends. Here's Chatillon rallying
:09:14. > :09:22.his supporters in the early 90s, when he was leader of a far right
:09:23. > :09:25.student group known as GUD. It was more or less of a gang, you know. It
:09:26. > :09:32.was just between a political movement and a street fighting gang.
:09:33. > :09:37.At that time, they changed from a tradition Alan I Communist movement
:09:38. > :09:41.to something more radical. So-called anti-Zionism, which, in fact, is
:09:42. > :09:45.merely a code word for anti-Semitism.
:09:46. > :09:50.Mr Chatillon came to the attention of French intelligence. His file
:09:51. > :09:58.from that time lists his activities, including a Nazi salute. In this
:09:59. > :10:02.note you can find all the meetings that Chatillon did in this time. Can
:10:03. > :10:06.you see the Hitler salute, so Nazi salute in 90, during a meeting. You
:10:07. > :10:13.can see that he met Leon Degrelle, which is... This is the former SS
:10:14. > :10:17.officer? Yes, exactly. You can see that he is linked to the skinhead
:10:18. > :10:21.movement in Paris. Today, we're told Frederic Chatillon is part of what's
:10:22. > :10:29.been described as a secret Cabinet around Le Pen.
:10:30. > :10:32.He's absolutely a key player - for the economy of the party, for the
:10:33. > :10:39.networks of the party, in all these meetings I saw this man close to
:10:40. > :10:43.Marine. This is Aymeric Chauprade. He quit the Front National after
:10:44. > :10:48.helping two French pilots, charged with drug smuggling, escape the
:10:49. > :10:52.Dominican Republic. Until then, he was Marine Le Pen's foreign affairs
:10:53. > :10:58.advisor. He says he clashed with her secret cabinet. We are not talking
:10:59. > :11:05.about conservative - class kill conservative ideas. We are talking
:11:06. > :11:11.about very radical ideas. Such as? Anti-Semitism. It's clear. Obsessed
:11:12. > :11:15.by the Jewish power, very anti-Semitic, very radical. Does
:11:16. > :11:21.Marine Le Pen share those views? I don't think Marine Le Pen is
:11:22. > :11:26.anti-Semitic. I'm not sure that Marine Le Pen is really independent
:11:27. > :11:31.from these people. If she doesn't share their views, and she is trying
:11:32. > :11:37.to detoxify the brand, why would she keep them around? I have absolutely
:11:38. > :11:40.no explanation, rational explanation, because rationally
:11:41. > :11:50.speaking, she should have fired them. Because they are very radical
:11:51. > :11:56.people. The explanation, it seems is - follow the money. If you look
:11:57. > :12:01.through the accounts for the Front National's campaigns, you'll find
:12:02. > :12:06.thousands of receipts. But what's weird is that so many of them are
:12:07. > :12:12.from just one company. It's called Riwal and its director is Frederic
:12:13. > :12:18.Chatillon. The Front National told us Mr Chatillon is nothing to do
:12:19. > :12:21.with the party, that Riwal is just a supplier of campaign materials:
:12:22. > :12:27.Posters, leaflets, websites and smartphone apps. But the authorities
:12:28. > :12:32.have been investigating. The first element of this investigation is the
:12:33. > :12:35.role that Riwal is playing with Front National. According to French
:12:36. > :12:40.justice, Riwal is acting like a bank.
:12:41. > :12:44.Prosecutors say the Front National, Riwal and Frederic Chatillon have
:12:45. > :12:50.been complicit in a mutually beneficial scam, involving fraud and
:12:51. > :12:55.miss use of public funds. Because Marine Le Pen did not manage to get
:12:56. > :13:03.financing from French banks, Chatillon, with his agency, Riwal,
:13:04. > :13:07.is acting like a banker in a way. So despite the talk of
:13:08. > :13:13.de-diablolisation - detoxification of the party - one of Le Pen's key
:13:14. > :13:17.money men could be a man who's linked to skinheads and former
:13:18. > :13:22.Nazis. There's no sign or anything to tell you that Mr Chatillon's
:13:23. > :13:27.company is based in this una-assuming building on a quiet
:13:28. > :13:32.back street. This is a company run by an old friend that's absolutely
:13:33. > :13:40.central to the functioning of Marine Le Pen's campaigns. We wanted to ask
:13:41. > :13:44.Mr Chatillon about all of this. We spotted him again, with a colleague,
:13:45. > :13:56.outside the campaign launch. Monsieur, Monsieur. Not keen to
:13:57. > :14:04.talk. Neither he nor the Front National replied to our letters
:14:05. > :14:11.either. A bigger question, perhaps, is Le Pen's relationship with
:14:12. > :14:16.Russia. Moscow never hid its enthusiasm for Donald Trump. Now
:14:17. > :14:20.just weeks before the election, Marine makes a surprise visit to
:14:21. > :14:25.Moscow. -- to the Kremlin.
:14:26. > :14:43.She meets the man suspected of subverting the US presidential race.
:14:44. > :14:52.Was that a smirk on Mr Putin's face? Naghemeh pens seemed not to notice.
:14:53. > :14:58.She spoke out against the EU sanctions on Russia heat deaths
:14:59. > :15:12.Brett Lee once lifted. -- desperately wants lifted.
:15:13. > :15:27.Two days later Russian police broke up in opposition protest.
:15:28. > :15:31.Up to 1000 people were detained. Nothing to do with Le Pen's visit,
:15:32. > :15:34.but this is life in Russia under Vladimir Putin, a leader she says
:15:35. > :15:37.she admires. Marine Le Pen's path to the Kremlin has been years in the
:15:38. > :15:39.making. It was her father who laid the groundwork. He came here almost
:15:40. > :15:46.immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union and began making
:15:47. > :15:51.contact on what was then a newly emerging nationalist right. One of
:15:52. > :15:56.the people Jean Marie Le Pen met back then was Vladimir Zhirinovsky,
:15:57. > :16:00.a die-hard Nationalist who once said the bells of the Russian Orthodox
:16:01. > :16:08.Church should ring out from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.
:16:09. > :16:17.This really is the godfather of Russian nationalism. Many of his
:16:18. > :17:02.ideas were far right. But there is more to this
:17:03. > :17:07.relationship than ideology. Remember, the Front National is in
:17:08. > :17:11.desperate need of money. In her search for funding, Marine Le Pen
:17:12. > :17:22.has hired fixers with Russian connections. One of them calls
:17:23. > :17:26.himself "Mr Mission Impossible". Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a former
:17:27. > :17:34.consultant turned MEP whose contacts range from Vatican insiders to
:17:35. > :17:39.Russian spies. Since Putin was in charge, I was working with Russia. I
:17:40. > :17:50.have information for France in Russia about who is who. In 2014, Mr
:17:51. > :17:59.Schaffhauser brokered alone worth 9 million euros from a bank with links
:18:00. > :18:06.to the Kremlin. These were turbulent times. Russia sent forces into
:18:07. > :18:12.Crimea, then annexed the territory through a referendum. The EU
:18:13. > :18:15.responded with sanctions, but Marine Le Pen publicly defended Moscow,
:18:16. > :18:21.raising suspicions that the money was a quid pro quo. Did you ever
:18:22. > :18:28.have any discussion with Marine Le Pen about Crimea and the situation
:18:29. > :18:32.in Ukraine? No, no. In regard to the loan? I'm trying to understand if
:18:33. > :18:36.there was any suggestion Marine Le Pen's position on Russian
:18:37. > :18:44.politics... Deep but you have to look at the story, always look in
:18:45. > :18:48.the story. Marine Le Pen was, and Jean Marie Le Pen before, was for
:18:49. > :18:53.this cooperation with Russia. They don't change it. It was not
:18:54. > :18:57.political on, it was a commercial loan. But Russia wanted to use
:18:58. > :19:01.Marine Le Pen to legitimise their annexation of Crimea. We know this
:19:02. > :19:06.because hackers published a text exchange apparently from the phone
:19:07. > :19:12.of a Kremlin official to Russian MP. I have the text messages here. We
:19:13. > :19:17.can see on the 17th of March they say, Marine Le Pen has officially
:19:18. > :19:20.recognise the results of the Crimea referendum. That comes the answer,
:19:21. > :19:25.she hasn't disappointed us with a smiley face. And then, we need to
:19:26. > :19:28.find some way of demonstrating our respect to the French.
:19:29. > :19:36.That's important. What did they mean by that?
:19:37. > :19:42.I contacted the Russian MP in the text exchange. At first he agreed to
:19:43. > :19:50.speak to me. But then, he stopped answering his phone. There were two
:19:51. > :19:54.loans totalling 11 million euros. One from that bank with links to the
:19:55. > :19:57.Kremlin, the other through an oligarch accused of helping to
:19:58. > :20:05.finance Russia's war in eastern Ukraine. For me there is no doubt
:20:06. > :20:09.that was authorised by Kremlin. A special operation and special
:20:10. > :20:14.recommendation and request of those businesspeople to help Marine Le
:20:15. > :20:20.Pen. There are in the Kremlin's hands, like instruments, just
:20:21. > :20:24.undertaking one or another specific, specific order, specific operation.
:20:25. > :20:27.The Kremlin told us it had nothing to do with the loans but in Russia
:20:28. > :20:38.business and politics are intertwined. Absolutely true. Why,
:20:39. > :20:44.if the Kremlin say "Never"... It wouldn't have happened? Yes. Without
:20:45. > :20:50.the approval of the Kremlin, it wouldn't have happened? I think, I
:20:51. > :20:55.think. So what is Marine Le Pen's relationship with the Kremlin? In
:20:56. > :20:58.public, she is denied meeting Mr Putin before this recent visit to
:20:59. > :21:10.Moscow. Here she is speaking to Newsnight just last week.
:21:11. > :21:22.But we've heard something different, and not just from anyone. It's
:21:23. > :21:23.Vladimir! When we met Marine's father back in February, let
:21:24. > :21:55.something slip. To be clear, this was before the
:21:56. > :21:59.public meeting in the Kremlin last month. Others who were close to
:22:00. > :22:08.Marine Le Pen told us the same thing. She told me that she met
:22:09. > :22:14.Putin, but I do not have the proof... But she told you? She told
:22:15. > :22:21.me. But the Kremlin told us Marine Le Pen and Vladimir Putin never met
:22:22. > :22:29.before. Someone is lying, but who, and why? I understand that she did
:22:30. > :22:33.meet Putin. This is a secret. LAUGHTER
:22:34. > :22:41.What can I say? Did she tell you she met Putin? All the discussion cannot
:22:42. > :22:48.be... There are little secrets, and this secret, I don't know this
:22:49. > :22:53.secret. Secrets are secrets. Last week it was revealed the Front
:22:54. > :22:58.National applied for yet another Russian loan in 2016. Marine Le Pen
:22:59. > :23:15.maintains she's never been influenced by Russian money.
:23:16. > :23:24.But the mystery of her relationship with Putin casts a shadow over her
:23:25. > :23:27.campaign, amid fears about the Kremlin's attempts to interfere in
:23:28. > :23:33.elections, from Europe to the United States.
:23:34. > :23:41.The victory of Donald Trump brought an unexpected shift in the political
:23:42. > :23:45.landscape. A week before the inauguration, Le Pen popped up in
:23:46. > :23:54.Trump Tower. No big deal, apparently.
:23:55. > :24:04.But what was she doing huddled in the cafe? The visit was arranged by
:24:05. > :24:09.this man... Guido Lombardi, friend of the European far right, also
:24:10. > :24:13.friend of Donald Trump and his neighbour. He organised a
:24:14. > :24:19.fundraising cocktail party for Le Pen. I spoke to him via video link.
:24:20. > :24:25.We had between 35 and 40 guests at my apartment at Trump Tower. Some of
:24:26. > :24:29.them were Americans, of course, from Wall Street. Some of the people that
:24:30. > :24:34.were there, they could have contributed $1 million without even,
:24:35. > :24:39.you know, blinking an eye. We don't know whether Mr Lombardi's friends
:24:40. > :24:43.lent Le Pen any money, but through him Marine Le Pen now has a direct
:24:44. > :24:49.link to the president of the United States. So I talked to Donald
:24:50. > :24:54.personally, I took to Steve Bannon, I talked to Priebus. I told all of
:24:55. > :24:59.them, she is coming, she is coming my place. What did Donald Trump say?
:25:00. > :25:03.He said, oh, I like her. Donald Trump was not the cocktail party,
:25:04. > :25:07.though we've been told Le Pen or members of her team met with friends
:25:08. > :25:12.of Trump at a later, private meeting. But it seems Marine Le Pen
:25:13. > :25:19.herself is still too toxic for Donald Trump. I would be the first
:25:20. > :25:26.one to tell Donald, don't meet her. It is, the connection is still too
:25:27. > :25:30.much, fresh. Even though she kicked the father out of the party, but it
:25:31. > :25:37.still somehow the party her father started.
:25:38. > :25:44.Some people, it seems, just don't buy the idea that the party of Le
:25:45. > :25:51.Pen has really changed, and that includes some on the very extremes
:25:52. > :25:57.of the far right. In Paris we met a group called Dissidence Francaise.
:25:58. > :26:02.They describe themselves as white nationalists and fascists.
:26:03. > :26:13.Can you hear that? This small group is an affiliated
:26:14. > :26:20.with the Front National. But their slogan, our people before other
:26:21. > :26:24.people, is borrowed word for word from one of Marine Le Pen's, from
:26:25. > :26:30.the last presidential election. Who are you voting for and why? For
:26:31. > :26:35.Marine, of course. Pretty much everyone on the right is behind her,
:26:36. > :26:41.because she is our last chance to save the country. So yes, of course,
:26:42. > :26:45.we support her. Dissidence Francaise believe there is a Zionist led
:26:46. > :26:50.conspiracy to commit what they called White genocide, by flooding
:26:51. > :26:55.Europe with immigrants. In an attempt to prove her point, Electre
:26:56. > :27:01.took me to a nearby Paris neighbourhood. When you look around
:27:02. > :27:07.here, you can barely see a white person. I mean the demographics, the
:27:08. > :27:11.numbers were talking, they will be taking over in less than 20 years.
:27:12. > :27:18.Europe isn't going to be white or European animal. It's not going to
:27:19. > :27:23.look like this here. That was the language of the old Front National,
:27:24. > :27:28.but some of Electre's views are closer to Marine's rhetoric. These
:27:29. > :27:32.people hate us, so they can go away. It's the only solution. Do you think
:27:33. > :27:37.Marine agrees with you on that? I think she agrees but I think she
:27:38. > :27:41.cannot say. Maybe one day she well. The Front National says such views
:27:42. > :27:46.have no place in the modern party, and yet Marine Le Pen apparently
:27:47. > :27:51.gives off in a far right pheromones to attract people like Electre.
:27:52. > :27:56.Polls suggest Le Pen will make it through the first round of the
:27:57. > :28:00.election this month, into the second round run off in May. A movement
:28:01. > :28:23.that was once on the fringes now stands on the cusp of power.
:28:24. > :28:31.Even if she fails in her bid for the presidency, Marine is part of a
:28:32. > :28:34.changing political landscape. But, for all the talk of
:28:35. > :28:38.de-diabolisation, the Front National is still the party of Le Pen, and
:28:39. > :28:41.the devil is in the details.